Cool cold fire flame – in your hand

How To Make Fire Balls - Amazing videos are here

This is an amazing howto video of an amazing thing – how to hold and play with a fire flame in your hand and not get burned. I guess it might be pretty cool to show this trick to ppl on some parties. You will be the party hero who can hold fire in his hands :-D

First Day of July, the First Day of me as an Employee

Since today, I have became a member of thousands of people around a world who are employed in some companies. I am working as a “systems engineer” at Center of Computers (or what’s the official translation) at Technical University of Kosice. I am responsible there mainly for the VoIP Network and for backup systems.

I am going crazy for the iPhone!

On the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2008, Steve Jobs introduced the new iPhone 3G with 3G support, GPS, Enterprise support (MS Exchange, Cisco VPN, etc.), additional languages support, the iPhone 3G will be officially sold now in 70 countries and many more new features!

But what really makes me crazy is THE PRICE!!!! For the 8GB version of the iPhone 3G it’s only $199 !!!!! WOW! Amazing! I can’t wait until I get my own iPhone 3G ;-)

There is also a new SDK available that makes mobile application development as easy as never before.

I definitely recommend to watch the keynote from the WWDC conference.

Graduation Informational Card

Here in Slovakia, there is a custom that graduates send small cards to their friends and relatives, to inform them about their graduation. This is usually just a small paper card with the university name, graduation ceremony place, … and it is usually sent by postal mail. Well, here is my card:

It’s in Slovak language, but the ENG translation could be: Jozef Janitor, is please to announce that after successful finishing of his studies at the Technical University of Kosice, at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, he will be on 20th of June 2008 at 10:00AM in the House of Arts graduated to Engineer (MSc).

I have been awarded – Activity of the year 2007/2008

During the Annual Slovak and Czech Cisco Networking Academy conference (12.-14. June 2008) in High Tatras I have been awarded with the Activity of the year 2007/2008 in Slovakia.

As they said, it was for my long time work with Packet Tracer publication, emulation and simulation software reviews, teaching, deploying and presenting IP telephony courses in Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland and Czech republic and for leading the development of the NCTT NetAcad Curricula Translation Tool. I was quite surprised and I started smiling when I heard all these activities in a row and I knew that at the end there must be my name :-) And it was :-D

Thank you very much Cisco Networking Academy!

 
From left: Karol Kniewald (AAM CZ),Me,John Edwards (Cisco EMEA),Frantisek Jakab (AAM SR)

Graduated!

6 years of university master’s studies are finished. Today at 3:00PM I have successfully graduated with A A A grades.

Best regards,
   Ing. Jozef Janitor

(hopefully) The last night as non-Ing. (non-M.Sc.)

Hopefully, tomorrow I will finish my MSc studies at the Technical University of Kosice, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Department of Computers and Informatics with an MSc degree :-D Here in Slovakia the MSc studies are called “engineer” studies, so my official degree will not be “M.Sc.” but “Ing.”as an acronym for a word “Inžinier” (Engineer).

The last 6 years of my studies at the university now look like as if I have had began my first semester just recently. It was really quick, and if someone will ask me what was the university about, what has it given to me, I would probably answer that new thinking, ideas, skills and friends. The university wasn’t really about learning how to write programs in Java or C#, or how to configure a Cisco device. It was more about theoretical ideas, finding out how things are really working, what’s in the background behind technologies; it was about learning to think with open mind and learning to learn. Now staying here at the end, I have to say that it was a pretty good time (some things could be maybe different, but nothing is ideal) :-)

I would like to send a big Thanks to everyone who has helped me through my studies and my life at the university. A big Thanks goes to the Computer Networks Laboratory, its members and Mr. Frantisek Jakab. A big Thanks goes also to my family!

Thank you.

My Master’s Thesis were about VoIP. The title was “Efficient VoIP Solution for the Environment of the Technical University of Kosice”. In the thesis I described differences between VoIP and TDM networks, outlined some aspects of VoIP technologies like QoS, Security, etc. If you are interested in reading it, you will find it at http://tinyurl.com/555u7g.

Computer Tomography - CT

I have been on CT few weeks ago. It was my first "experience" and and I was a bit exited about it. When I arrived to the hospital, to the CT station, I had to wait for about a half an hour to get my turn. The CT "machine" looked like a big circle (it was bigger then me I guess) and at the top it had a logo of Philips (let's make things better). Unfortunately I didn't take any picture of it :-(

Well, the CT itself took just about 2 or less minutes and I have got the results on CD. You may guess what was the first thing that I had done with that CD :-D I had my laptop with myself, so I woke it up (I don't remember when was the last time when I clicked on the Shutdown button in Windows as I always just put my laptop to Sleep or Hibernate mode) and checked what's on the CD. There was some application for viewing the results so I started it. And wu-ala, I was looking at my head from inside :)

 
My head from side.

 
My head in layers from front.

There were about 400 photos taken and the provided application can create nice animations of those photos. Unfortunately I don't have any screen recording application installed here on my laptop so I cannot show it to you :-(

There is No Internet Anymore! Now we are all Alone :-(

Just imagine it. How horrible it is to even think about it. What if there would be no more Internet service?

What would you do then? What would you do without your emails, instant messages, life 2.0? What would you do without skype, youtube, google, myspace and your best friends (those you have never met IRL (in real life)) on facebook?

And there is no Internet to find out (e.g. google) why there is no Internet.

Well, finding out the answer for this simple question is not easy. But the South Park creators have been smart enough to show us what would happen if there would be no more Internet (at least in the South Park town):

South Park: Season 12: Over Logging - part 1

South Park: Season 12: Over Logging - part 2

Easter

I have just heard an interesting story, which sounds a bit like a Spielberg movie script, that I want to share with you:

It's year 2010. There are 7.000.000.000 people living on the world. One person, somewhere in a small city in India (or wherever else) suddenly became ill. It looks like it's just a flu. We face flu every year, we have powerful medicaments, so what? Nothing special, the person will get some antibiotics and he hopes that he will be again healthy in one week. But his health is getting worst and worst. The antibiotics are not helping. He has to go immediately to a hospital.

The doctors are starting to became worried that's maybe it's something new, something unknown yet. And they are right. A researcher finds out in the laboratory that the virus is a new flu mutation. Doctors are trying to help the ill person but they are hopeless. The ill person dies in the next 3 days. There was no cure for him. Unfortunately, that's not yet the end. It's just the beginning (of the end). The virus has already started it's journey among other people. First the nurses who were taking care of the ill person, then some friends of him, then the city where he was living and where the hospital was located.

After one week the virus is on each continent of the world. Doctors and researchers throughout the world are trying to find the cure. But they are not lucky. Nothing works. They are becoming hopeless. The last hope is to find someone who is resistive against the virus. People are starting to visit hospitals to give a sample of their blood. Hopefully someone will have in his blood some antigens against the virus.

There is a little 8 year old boy standing outside on the hospital's yard with his father waiting for their blood results. He asks his father "When are we going back home?" "Well son, I think it's not worth to wait here. Let's go home." answers his father when a doctor is running in their direction and he is saying out loud "Sir!, Sir!, wait please, please wait for a second". He stops where their are standing and with a big smile he says that they have found the antigen which is resistive against the virus. He continues saying "Your son is resistive. His blood has something which protects him against the virus. Please, come back with me, we have to make some additional tests!" Booth father and son starts to smile at each other and they are running back with the doctor to the hospital. There are already about 10 doctors waiting for them and they starts to make some tests with the blood of the boy. "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! We have really found it!" starts yelling a doctor who is looking into his microscope. He seems to be very happy. Definitely he is. They have just found something what will rescue the whole mankind from death.

The father is waiting in the hall when another doctor came out with a paper and a pen in his hand. He doesn't seem to be very happy and he starts saying "Sir, we have found out that the blood of your son can help us to create an antivirus." "That's great! So when can we go home?" the father asks. "Well, to create the antivirus we need more of your son's blood. But because he is so young, the amount of blood we need to transfer from his body will kill him. I am here to ask you to sign this paper which will allow us to this blood transfer. Your son will help to cure all people on the world from this illness. I know it's a big price but that's the only way. Please help us, help to all other people!" The father is first very confused, he has to sacrifice his own son to help to everyone, even to himself. After a long thinking and considering every other chance, he agrees and signs the paper. He is going to visit his son for the last time when they have already started the blood transfer. His son is smiling at him and asks him once again "When are we going back home?". His father drops on the bed where his son is lying and starts crying.

One year after the cure was found and the world became back to normal, people all around the world create a celebration for this little boy who was sacrificed for them. During the celebration people are drinking, they start to argue with each other on different pointless topics, they start to fight, and they absolutely forget about the little boy. When the father sees this, he feel sorry for sacrificing his son for all these people.

What would you sacrifice for mankind?

What's wrong with the weather???

About 3 weeks ago we had here for a few days a very nice sunny weather with +15°C outside.

But during the last week or so, the weather here is terrible :-( It's windy, rainy, cold and it's just about 6°C outside. What's happening to the weather?

During the last autumn and the beginning of the winter I was studying in Finland. I always thought that the weather in Finland will be pretty cold, I was ready to face the -30°C outside in December. But to my big surprise, the weather was not so cold there. Really, even when I was leaving on 21st of December, it was +1°C and it was not snowing but raining! Fortunately they have got some snow and colder weather in the beginning of the new year. But anyway, still not -30°C. On the other hand, they told me that few years ago it was normal that during the winter it was about -30°C, but the last years are still warmer.

I remember when I was younger (not that I am old now, I hope) we had here white snow during each X-mas, Easter was sunny and warmer, the summer was nicely warm from the beginning to the end without high temperatures that can kill ppl. I hope that the actual climate changes are only temporary and the weather will became back to normal. Otherwise I will get afraid about the future :-(

The Italian Man Who Went to Malta

It's a bit older but those of you who haven't heard it yet, here you go: http://www.jozjan.net/x/italian_english.mp3

Do we really need to know this binary thing?

During the last two weeks I was teaching a basic networking course (CCNA Exploration 1) for the T-Systems Slovakia and when we have got into the binary numbers, students were a bit confused why do they have to learn all those binary things. To clear out the importance of the binary system I used a picture of a fancy T-Shirt at thinkgeek.com, which is a pretty good example explaining why is it better to use the binary system instead of the decimal system while counting on your fingers. While using a decimal system you can count on your 10 fingers only to 10 (ten). But when utilizing the binary system, you can count on your 10 fingers to 1023 (10^2-1) ;-)

Although to be honest, it could be really a bit confusing (if not dangerous) asking for 4 beers showing it with your fingers in the binary system ...

Wikipedia article about Binary Fingers.

My favorite Windows applications

• firefox - the Best web browser ever
• putty - ssh, telnet client
• wireshark - network sniffer, useful for troubleshooting
• vmware - virtual machines
• launchy - windows quick lunch replacement on steroids and much more
• objectdock - windows taskbar replacement
• mspaint - the Best pictures editor :-p
• irfan view - the Best pictures viewer ever!
• pidgin - multiple IM networks client (icq, msn, irc, gtalk, ...)
• super - super video converter, it can convert anything to anything :-D
• TextAloud - text2speech, read the webpage in your browser
• Shareaza - P2P client used to download high quality legal stuff
• Picasa - pictures/photo management software, can upload pictures to picasaweb
• Packet Tracer 4.1, Dynampis, Dynagen, GNS3 - if you work with Cisco this is the definitely must have stuff!
• OpenVPN - VPN solution
• Outlook on desktop - display your outlook calendar (tasks, emails, ...) on your desktop
• Notebook Hardware Control - control your processor power consumption
• Nero - burn burn burn
• Mindmanager - manage your ideas easily
• Visual Studio - develop .net or C++ applications
• Last.fm - listen your favorite music, show other what are you listening
• K-lite mega codec pack - the Best codec pack for Widnows
• Virtual Dub - avi video files editor
• Express talk - VoIP client
• xlite - VoIP client
• Nod32 - the Best antivirus solution ever!
• Debugging tools for Windows - Debug your buggy Windows and find out what's wrong
• Norton Ghost - disk backup solution
• HySnapDX - screenshots easily
• Notepad++ - the Best text editor ever!
• wipfw - FreeBSD firewall on your Windows
• Process Explorer - must have Windows Task Manager replacement
• scp - securely copy your files from command line
• autoruns - check what applications are being started with your computer and more
• filemon - monitor what happens to your files
• regmon - monitor what happens to your Windows registry
• pagedfrg - defragment your page file, registry hives, ...
• tftpd32 - the Best ever TFTP server
• tcpview - what networking applications are running
• junction - like Linux symlinks, but this on Windows and NTFS
• nc - no, not Norton Commander but NetCat
• vitrite - make any window transparent
• MACAddressChanger - easily change your MAC address
• UnxUtils - unix command like tools
• Media player classic - must have Media Player for movies
• VideoLAN VLC - play any video in this player
• Demon tools - mount your ISO images into a virtual CDrom drive
• cutepdf - print anything to PDF
• CrossLoop - Connect to a computer screen remotely
• Google desktop - Google your local files
• microsoft.net - great application framework
• Network Stumbler - find your neighborhoods WiFi networks
• Serv-U - FTP server
• Skype - VoIP client
• TaskSwitchXP - ALT+TAB on steroids
• Windows Defender - defend your Windows from Spyware
• WinRAR - un/pack and de/compress your files
• Zend - PHP developer's Swiss knife
• Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 - Manage your email and calendar from one place
• Visio - draw nice diagrams
• notepad - nice tool for small notes

What are your favorite Windows applications?

When are you going to sleep?

I am usually going to sleep very late. While I was in Finland I got used to go to bed at 4:00AM or 5:00AM. Now when I am back at home, I am trying to be in my bed before 2:00AM and usually I am going to sleep at about 1:00AM. How about you?

PF2k8!

Happy New Year 2008!

Back@Home

I am back at home.

Hello World

Have you ever wondered why is it "Hello World"? Why it is not "It works" or something else, maybe more useful? Well, because I work a lot with computers, networks, etc. I do not want to change this "habit" so here we go:

Hello World

So after having the initial Hello World, let's see what is this all going to be about :-) In this blog I will try to publish my experiences (mainly) with networking stuff, operating systems, security, VoIP and other very "interesting" things (Although my non-IT friends will maybe ask me what am I talking about). Now you may ask who am I. Or maybe not, but anyway, I will tell you :-) My name is Jozef Janitor, I am (a guy) from Slovakia in Central Europe, from a city called Kosice. Actually, I live in a small nice village called Mala Ida which is just 12km far from Kosice. I am a Ing. (M.Sc.) student at Technical University of Kosice, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics at Department of Computers and Informatics. As a member of Computer Netwoks Laboratory (CNL) I work on some projects (mainly VoIP), and I administer our CNL network infrastructure. I also act as an instructor at Regional Cisco Networking Academy at Technical University of Kosice. Now you may think that "oh, yet another geek guy" and well, you are right :-) But I also like to do in my spare time some other things than IT: cycling, swimming, hiking, ... In a present time I am still in Finland, enjoying (well, to be honest working on projects and preparing for exams) my stay here as an international exchange student during this autumn semester at Jyvaskyla University of Applied Science. I guess that for the first Hello World post it is maybe enough. Have a nice day and C ya next time.